Acquiring Provisions in Terrance – Encounter – CftD 4

This encounter is designed to be the fourth encounter in the “Chalice for the Devourer” beta testing Adventure. It can also be adapted for any party in a town needing to buy new gear and provisions.

Overview

Type: Social

This scenario finds the heroes shopping for provisions and gear in Terrance Kennesaw. Shopping in The Foregone Trail is a compound process where players have a competitive phase using Street Smarts to find the best vendors and then have an optional phase to barter with the vendors for the goods. Bartering has a risk/reward as losing a barter results in the player buying more items than they wanted.

Location: In the Kennesaw Sheriff’s office.

Outline:

• Introduction
• Finding Vendors (Street Smarts)
• Selecting Goods and Gear
• Bartering Prices
• Post Action

NPCs:

• Allied:
  • Sharrif Scooter
• Neutral
  • Vendors
• Hostile
  • None

Location

A map is not needed for this phase, but a mockup of the Sherrif’s office and of a store could be used for immersion. Players start at the Sherrif’s office and then proceed to the vendor stores via street smarts

Introduction

Our heroes have just won the duel and are back at the Sheriff’s office.

Sheriff Scooter is speaking with the player characters after they have accepted the mission from the Expulsior.

“I’m glad you’ll be escorting the Expulsior. I have a feeling this is going to be a very dangerous endeavor and seeing the condition of the train on its arrival, I believe it would be prudent for you to prepare as if you had to complete the mission on foot regardless of the mode of transportation you’ve selected.

To that end I’d recommend you have at minimum the following gear:

• 50 rounds of ammunition
• 10 bandages
• 3 liters of water capacity
• 30 meals of food (10 days)
• Mess kit
• Cooking kit
• Bed Roll & Blanket
• Fire starters
• Rope
• Lantern & Oil

Finding Vendors

There are three tiers of vendors in Terrence, Good, Normal and Bad. Players will compete in a race to 7 action points using their Street Smarts skills.

The first player to 7 action points gets a Good Vendor

All but the last player to 7 action points get Normal vendors

The last player who did not reach 7 action points, gets a Bad vendor

Good Vendor – 10% discount on prices, low bartering skill, only up to semi-rare items available.

Normal Vendor – no discount, medium bartering skill, only up to uncommon items available.

Bad Vendor – 10% surcharge on prices, high bartering skill, only normal items available.

Selecting Goods and Grear

Players may select items from the item pages. They should each create a list and total up the cost. The GM should check to make sure the item class (Normal, uncommon, semi-rare, etc) are available for their vendor type.

If they suggest a reasonable item to exist in the world, it should be allowed and priced by the GM.

Negotiation Phase

Players may use social buff skills such as Smooth Words prior to bartering.

1 Round – Bartering – Players barter against vendors for their payment. This is a single round; each player plays their hand and wagers separately. The Game Master will run one hand for each level of vendor (3 total, one for Good, one for Normal and one for Bad)

Results:

Loose – wager 7+ GM Selects 2 items the payer did not have on their list that they must buy at full price, no additional discounts. Items should be as useless as possible and can be made up like a taxidermized deer head or framed photograph of the city.
Loose – wager 4-6 -GM Selects 1 item the payer did not have on their list that they must buy at full price, no additional discounts. The item should be at least moderately useful.
Loose – wager 1-3 -GM Selects 1 item the payer did not have on their list that they must buy at full price, no additional discounts. The item should be useful and even metagamed by the GM if the player hasn’t selected something that could be very useful like smelling salts or dynamite.
tie – No Change
Win – wager 1-3 additional 5% discount
Win – wager 4-6 additional 10% discount
Win – wager 7+ additional 25% discount

Post Action

The players select which items will be on their person and the vendor sends the remaining items to the Sheriff’s office for them. A bad dust storm is seen approaching, and they should return to the Sheriff’s office themselves. A feeling of dread fills the players and if they decide to do something else, they take 5 tears damage at the start and 1 tears damage ever 15 minutes they do something else.